Suicide mortality in Finnish Lapland by small areas, with reference to temporal trends

Triggers for attempted suicide in Istanbul youth, with special reference to their socio-demographic background

OBJECTIVE

Suicidal behavior of young people is a topic of utmost importance because suicide is irreversible, and should be prevented. Knowing about the psychosocial background and the triggering events could help in preventing suicidal behavior. We therefore aimed at identifying psychosocial factors that may trigger suicidal behavior in youth.

METHODS

We analyzed retrospectively the standardized records of 2232 youths aged ≤25 years, who were treated after a suicide attempt at emergency units of public hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey during a period of 1 year. We describe this population according to sex and socio-economic conditions, like educational, occupational, relationship status and link them with their reported reasons for suicide attempts.

RESULTS

The majority of patients were female (81.6%, N = 1822 females, 18.4%, N = 410 males). Independent of their educational and occupational background, patients indicated most frequently intra-familial problems (females 45.8%, males 30.5%), intrapersonal problems (females 19.9%, males 18.5%), and relationship problems (females 11.3%, males 23.9%) as triggering reasons.

CONCLUSIONS

Because intra-familial problems were the most frequently reported triggers of suicide attempts, preventive measures should focus on handling intra-familial conflicts. As sex differences were observed for the second-most common trigger-reasons, prevention should also focus on differentially handling intrapersonal and relationship conflicts better.

Tendência da mortalidade por intoxicação medicamentosa entre gêneros e faixas etárias no Estado de São Paulo, Brasil, 1996-2012

Resumo O estudo verificou a tendência da mortalidade por intoxicação medicamentosa por faixas etárias, sexo e intenção, na população do estado de São Paulo. A série temporal de mortalidade por intoxicação medicamentosa ajustada foi construída a partir de dados do Sistema de Informações sobre Mortalidade do DATASUS (1996 a 2012). Foram verificadas a magnitude e a tendência para as variáveis estudadas. Observou-se tendência crescente de mortalidade ajustada a partir de 2005, que se acentuou a partir de 2009, o que foi confirmado pelo valor do IC95% para a taxa de variação anual média. Tal tendência não foi verificada para a mortalidade geral para o estado (TVAM = -0,22%; IC95% = -1,12 – 0,69), para a mortalidade específica por causas externas (TVAM = -3,14%; IC95% = -4,75 – -1,49) e para a mortalidade por intoxicação medicamentosa acidental (TVAM = +9,76%, IC95% = -12,16 – 37,14). A autointoxicação medicamentosa intencional foi a que mais cresceu no período (TVAM = +10,64%, IC95% = 6,92 – 14,49), assim como a mortalidade entre os mais jovens (maior magnitude). A tendência observada para a mortalidade por intoxicação medicamentosa no estado de São Paulo, a relevância da componente intencional e da mortalidade entre as faixas etárias mais jovens ressaltam a necessidade de implementação de medidas de controle.

Northern excess in adolescent male firearm suicides: a register-based regional study from Finland, 1972-2009

There are more firearms in Northern Finland as compared to Southern Finland, and a positive association between suicide rates and the number of firearms in a given region has been demonstrated in previous literature. Accordingly, the authors compared firearm suicide rates of Finnish adolescent (under 18 years) males in the two geographic regions. Young adult (18-24 years) and adult (25-44 years) males were used as reference groups. National data on cases of suicide in Northern and Southern Finland between 1972 and 2009 were obtained from Statistics Finland. Firearm suicides (n=5,423) were extracted according to ICD-classification (ICD-8/9: E955, ICD-10: X72-X75). The distribution of types of firearms (hunting gun, handgun, other) employed in suicides was also investigated. The adolescent male firearm suicide rate in Northern Finland was almost three times higher than that observed in Southern Finland, while there was no difference in rates of suicide by other methods. A northern excess in firearm suicide rates was also found among young adult and adult males. Hunting guns were the most common type of firearms employed in young male suicides, and their use was especially common in Northern Finland. Our results indicate that the use of firearms plays a major role in explaining the northern excess in young Finnish male suicide rates, and emphasize a need to advance suicide prevention according to specific regional characteristics.